Stefan (Lost Nights Series Book 1) (3 page)

“
Oui
, Erin. You have proven to be very interesting so I cannot see you as merely a meal,” he murmured.

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“
Oui
.”

I relaxed a little more against him, some of the tension finally easing from my arms. It sounded that he at least saw me as a human being, not that I was entirely sure that such a thing was good, but I guess it was better than being viewed as a cow. Stefan lowered his head and took a deep breath, drawing in my scent. I shivered and I didn’t know if it was out of fear or something else. It certainly wasn’t cold. I was feeling incredibly warm already and the cool touch of his skin was a relief.

“Wait!” I said sharply when he continued to lower his head to my neck.

A low chuckle shook Stefan’s chest. He didn’t lift his head but he stopped moving forward. “We cannot keep putting this off, Erin. It is inevitable. Your smell is intoxicating and I am famished.”

“Am I going to pass out?”

“Very likely.”

“You’re not going to just drop me on the floor, right?”

Stefan lifted his head at this so that he could glare at me in the eye. There was no question that I’d insulted him. I guess the vampire had manners of some sort.

I blinked at him, giving him wide innocent eyes that didn’t convince him in the least, but his lovely mouth did twitch as if he were desperately fighting a smile. “I was just checking. I’m a bit heavy.”

“No, you are not.”

“If I’m not conscious when you leave, could you turn off the oven so the building doesn’t burn down around me?”

Stefan solemnly nodded and resumed his pursuit of my neck. The hand on my wrist slid down to my back to hold me close, while the hand on my waist rose to move my damp hair from my neck. His fingertips brushed across my skin in a gentle caress as if he were exploring that tender area. I flinched and drew in closer to him, instinctively seeking solace and protection despite the fact that he was one who was about to harm me.

His lips brushed over my warm flesh next; just the faint touch of butterfly’s wings. My muscles were taut with anticipation and my stomach jumped with every touch. I tilted my head up, giving him better access as his kisses grew firmer. The tip of this tongue slid slowly along the throbbing vein and my fingers clenched on his thick biceps.

I turned my face into his chest and when I spoke, my lips brush against his skin. “Do I have to forget, Stefan?”

The vampire paused, his hands tightening as if he were suddenly afraid that I would disappear in a puff of smoke. “I don’t know.” His voice was a caress of rough velvet.

Fangs plunged into my neck and my whole body jerked. There was a whip-crack of lightning and I wasn’t sure if I’d merely seen the flash outside my window or if I’d been struck. Pleasure and pain scorched through me, burning nerve endings and frying away brain cells until I was sure that I no longer knew my own name. The first draw from the holes in my throat was painful and I winced, but the pain gave way to an all-consuming pleasure.

I moaned, crushing him against me. There was some tiny part of my brain that was telling me that none of it was real, but it felt too damn good for me to care. Somehow I’d gotten one hand up to bury it into his soft brown hair. It was like plunging my fingers into cool, damp satin. The haunting scent of dried leaves and burned wood drifted around me, as if he embodied the spirit of autumn. My face turned into his neck and I kissed along the straining muscles I could reach. Flicking my tongue across the exact spot he was drinking from me, I marveled at his deep moan. His hands tightened almost painfully as a new wave of pleasure washed over me.

I wanted more. I wanted to be closer so that my skin was touching all of his wonderfully cool skin. I wanted to be closer so that we were both drowning in this feeling. But as soon as the thoughts formed, they began to fade. A languid darkness was crowding close. Where there had been tension before, I now felt only a welcoming lassitude. I brushed one last kiss along Stefan’s throat before a soft sigh escaped me and I sank into the gentle embrace of the darkness.

Chapter 2

The room was too bright. I hadn’t even opened my eyes yet, but I could feel the burning sunlight beating down on my eyelids. I’d somehow managed to forget to close the heavy curtains before falling into bed last night. But my brain locked up after that because I simply had no memory of falling into bed. No, my last memory was of … Stefan.

My eyes jumped open and I groaned, dropping my arm over them to shield me from the bright sunlight. The low-grade headache that had been throbbing in my temples speared through my eyeballs, leaving me panting through the pain until it finally crept back to a dull ache.

The flash of pain at least helped to get my brain working again. Lying in bed, I did a quick assessment of my body. Beside my head, I didn’t feel any additional aches or pains. In fact, I felt amazingly relaxed as if years of tension had suddenly fled my muscles, leaving me blissfully loose. With my right arm still thrown across my eyes, I hesitantly lifted my left hand to touch where Stefan had bitten me. The site was somewhat tender, but there were only two tiny holes that were scabbed over. In fact, the small wound felt as if it were several days old rather than hours.

I stretched my legs beneath the covers and sighed, trying to decide whether I wanted to climb out of my nice warm bed to make a pot of coffee or if I wanted to lounge in bed for a little while longer and daydream about Stefan’s chest.
Yeah, his chest won.

My attraction for the vampire didn’t make any sense. According to what little people had discovered about the creatures, they weren’t alive, fed on human blood, and had frightening powers that made them absolutely lethal hunters. In general, the world didn’t know what to do about them now that we had proof that they existed. The news occasionally carried stories of a vampire attack, but most turned out to be the work of a sick human killing others and framing vampires. No, the real scary stories were the disappearances. We heard about them all the time, but now humans suspected that so many were actually the doing of vampires.

Maybe we didn’t need to do much about them except learn to coexist. Supposedly vampires existed for centuries without us knowing. They’ve adapted. Hell, Stefan probably hadn’t given me a second thought after he dropped me in my bed last night. I was just another meal in a stretch of thousands of victims.

My mind immediately shied from the word as soon as I thought it. Was I a victim? Yes, I couldn’t have escaped him if I had wanted to. In a sense I’d been forced to give him my blood, even if I had walked willingly into his arms. But if I had been given the choice, wouldn’t I have still helped him? If I had passed him on the street and he’d needed money for food, I’d have given him a few bucks. If I’d stopped at a fast food joint and had a spare cheeseburger, I would have given it to him. So maybe I wasn’t really a victim. Or maybe I was and I was rationalizing so I could deal with that had happened and the fact that I was attracted to him.

And that was part of his appeal. He was completely unavailable. It was totally my M.O. I was always attracted to the guys I didn’t have a shot in hell at getting. Stefan was a vampire, making him the worst choice possible for a boyfriend.
But man….he was just so damn sexy and I was never going to see him again.

Rolling over onto my other pillow, I stopped at the sound of crinkling paper. I jerked upright, my eyes popping open with ease now that I was somewhat accustomed to the daylight. A folded note lay on the pillow with my name written across it in a bold script. I stared at it in shock. Had he really left me a note?

Sitting up in bed, I snatched up the note, my heart pounding in my chest. My fingers drifted over where he’d written my name, noting that his handwriting looked old fashioned.

Ma Petite,

Thank you for an entertaining evening. I pray that your stay in Venice improves. I also entreat you to be more cautious while in Venice and avoid traveling after sunset. There are many others in the area who would not be as amused with your demeanor as I was and I do not wish to see you come to harm.

Be well and have sweet dreams of me,

Stefan

Not exactly a stirring love letter, but it was touching that he’d taken the time to warn me to be more cautious around Venice. It was also amusing that the arrogant vampire thought I needed to dream about him. I read the letter a second time, smiling to myself. Meeting Stefan had certainly been an interesting experience I wasn’t likely to forget.

I stopped in the act of getting out of bed as a sudden realization struck me. I remembered.
I remembered it all.
Stefan had said that I wouldn’t remember any of it and yet I remembered it all. Why he’d changed his mind? While I was sure that I didn’t want to repeat the experience with another vampire, I was glad that I’d met Stefan briefly. It was just a shame that I hadn’t had the chance to ask him more questions.

Of course, that was probably why he’d gotten down to business relatively quickly last night. He hadn’t wanted to be badgered by my silly questions when he had probably been starving.

When I walked out into the living room, I stopped beside the sofa. Something was off. I was sad that there was no evidence that Stefan had ever been in there, not that I could have said what the evidence was. His clothes were gone and the chairs had been placed under the table again. The oven was closed and turned off, as he’d promised. He’d even emptied the water buckets and stacked them by the sink. It had stopped raining before he left.

And then it hit me. The apartment was warm. I walked over to the radiator that Stefan had tried to use and even before I touched the cast iron, I could feel heat pouring off of it. Was this Stefan’s doing? Or was my luck finally changing? I was whistling as I made my first cup of coffee and carried it to the shower. I was outright singing by the time I finished my shower, because I had hot water too!

My mood was vastly improved when I left the apartment that morning. The air was crisp and cool, but I started the day toasty warm so I didn’t care. Rather than taking the ferry over to the piazza, I chose to walk, allowing me to savor the bright sun overhead. Venice wasn’t particularly large and could be walked from one end to the other in a couple hours. The only problem was that it was extremely easy to get lost in the city with its narrow canals and winding paths. More than once I had to backtrack to find a bridge as I slowly headed north.

What should have taken less than forty-five minutes turned into an all-day walk to Piazza San Marco because I located San Travaso church and Santa Maria della Salute church along my way. Setting up my tiny folding chair, I pulled out my sketch pad from my bag and made several sketches of the ancient buildings before moving on. A couple bridges and colorful buildings lining the canals caught my attention as I walked, forcing me to stop again. At lunch, I hit a place overflowing with locals and stumbled through ordering. While I ate, I cleaned up a few of the sketches I’d already created, and then it was finally onto the piazza.

After lunch, I completed a few business phone calls as I walked. When I reached my destination, I found a spot that allowed me a view of the church, the campanile, and the Doge’s Palace. The only thing that was blocked was the Museo Archeologico behind me, but I was content to save it for another day. The flood waters, or
acqua alta
as the Italians referred to it, had receded. Both the pigeons and the tourists had returned, but I could block both of them out as I worked. I just needed the buildings and my imagination.

The hours flew by without my notice. For the first time since arriving in Venice, I was getting some work done. There were no distractions about where I was staying or new orders coming in from my employer. There were just the old structures rising up before me and the blank page in my lap.

Sadly, my total focus on work resulted in my completely losing track of time. I was finishing up my third drawing of the Campanile when I got the feeling that someone was standing very close to me.

“You are very talented,” Stefan said, eliciting a surprised little scream of me.

My head popped up and my mouth dropped open at the sight of him. My first thought was shock at seeing him. My second thought was that he didn’t look particularly pleased to see me. But it was my third that I finally commented on. “It’s dark,” I murmured in wonder, only now noticing that I’d managed to position myself beneath a lamp without realizing it.

“Yes, and you need to come with me now,” Stefan fairly snarled at me as he extended his hand. I flashed him a mutinous look, deciding whether I should let him know what I thought about his commands. “Do not,” he added in a deadly low voice that practically vibrated with menace.

Something was going on that I didn’t quite understand and I was trusting that the vampire would explain things as soon as we were in a more private location. With a curt nod, I packed up my things and took his hand. I expected him to briskly walk with me to the nearest ferry back to Dorsoduro. A little scream of surprised escaped me a second time when Stefan wrapped one arm around my waist and took to the air.

“You fly!” I said, wrapping my arms around him neck and clung to him with all my strength.

“Yes.”

“You could have warned me.”

“Why? You’ve decided not to heed my warnings,” he said bitterly, anger flashing in his gray eyes like a thunderstorm.

“What are you talking about?”

“Did you not read the letter I left you?”

“Oh, yeah. It was sweet, but I didn’t dream about you,” I said with a little smile.

Stefan’s mood didn’t lighten with my attempt at humor. “I cautioned you not to travel at night. I cautioned you that this city was extremely dangerous. I hadn’t realized that you had a death wish. You had led me to believe otherwise when you requested last night that I not kill you.”

“I don’t have a death wish.”

“Then you are simply foolish.”

I shoved away from Stefan the second my feet touched the ground in front of my apartment. “Listen here, buster. I didn’t mean to stay out past sunset. I even set an alarm on my phone so I would know when to head back to the apartment.” As I spoke, I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my phone, only to find that the battery had died. Yeah, alarms don’t work too well if the battery doesn’t last. It must have been from the phone calls I’d made earlier in the day. I hadn’t realized how much they had drained the battery.

Making a sound of disgust at myself, I shoved my dead phone back into my pocket and proceeded to unlock the door. Maybe Stefan was right. I was incredibly foolish.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured as I trudged up the stairs with Stefan following as silently as a ghost behind me. “I had intended to leave well before sunset so I’d be safely back here, but I got caught up in work and my reminder alarm never went off.”

“You need to be more cautious,” Stefan said. It sounded as if some of the edge had left his voice, but he still wasn’t happy. I had imagined during my long walk today what it would be like to see him again. Arguing over my stupidity had never entered my mind and wasn’t exactly the most pleasing conversation we could have had.

“You’re right. I will.” I put the key in the door to my apartment and unlocked it. Stepping aside to let him in, I shut the door behind him. “I just don’t understand what’s got you so worked up. No one bothered me while I was in the piazza. If there are vampires hunting in Venice, they weren’t in my part of town.”

Stefan paced away from me, shoving one hand through his hair. The movement stretched his shirt so that it molded to the hard muscles of his arms and chest. Now that I wasn’t being surprised or growled at by him, I noticed how good he looked in his light gray button-down shirt that matched his eyes. It was open at the throat, revealing the neck that I had kissed the night before. His dark slacks hinted at strong, powerful legs. The man looked good, really damn good. It took some effort to draw my attention back to his agitated state.

“There were four,” Stefan bit out.

“Four what?”

“There were four nightwalkers watching you when I arrived. And I am sure more noticed you since I’d heard whispers that a woman was sitting in the middle of the piazza flaunting my protection,” he snarled.

“Whoa! Hold on just a minute.” I stomped into my apartment and loudly dropped my things beside the sofa. “You’re going to have to explain what they hell you’re talking about because none of that last sentence made any sense.”

Stefan seemed to lose a bit of steam at that comment, dropping his hand back down to his side. He sighed softly and it was only then that I noticed that it was the first time I’d actually seen him draw in a breath and release it. Did vampires truly not need to breathe? Well, I guess if you’re dead, then breathing is a bit superfluous.

“Please, sit and I will explain.”

“Sit? This is a sitting conversation? I don’t think we know each other well enough that we should need to have a sitting conversation.”

Stefan’s eyes narrowed on me and he closed the distance separating us in a heartbeat. I tried to jump backward, but his hands were already firmly on my waist and I wasn’t going anywhere. “After last night, I feel as if I should know you very well,” he said in a low, husky whisper that I could feel down to my toes.

“Nothing happened last night,” I said, trying to sound unmoved by his tone, but it really didn’t come out that way. I focused on the buttons on his shirt so that he couldn’t see how his words affected me.